On December 18 th , the Fed dropped its benchmark rate for the 3 rd time since summer, by another quarter percent, but suggested only 2 further reductions in 2025 – which was not what investors and bond markets wanted to hear. This caused stock markets to fall from recent highs and mortgage interest rates to spike up, but, so far, these are very short-term reactions, and may quickly change course again. In early December readings, the U.S. jobs report rebounded, inflation ticked up slightly, and consumer confidence hit its highest point in 7 months. And, as of the date of this report, a government shutdown looms once again due to the inability of Congress to agree on a spending bill. ❖ National existing-home sales in November 2024 fell 9.5% from October but rose 5% from November 2023. Though continuing to drop from the usual June peaks, year over year, the median single-family-home sales price and median condo/co-op sales price were up 4.8% and 2.8% respectively.
❖ Moving into the mid-winter holiday slowdown, the numbers of new listings, homes for sale, listings pending sale, and closed sales all declined, and can be expected to drop further in December.
❖ Approximately 53% of sales went into contract in less than 1 month (vs. 62% in 11/23), 18% sold over list price, and 25% of buyers purchased all-cash. The median days-on-market to acceptance of offer was 32 days (vs. 25 days last year), and sold listings received an average of 2.1 offers. Approximately, 30% of purchases were by first-time buyers, and 4% by vacation home buyers. It is difficult to make definitive determinations about where the market is heading in 2025 from end- of-year statistics, but in the last several years, demand rebounded substantially early in the new year and then accelerated into spring. As always, much depends on political and macroeconomic factors that are challenging to predict.
A national report is a huge generalization of values, conditions and trends across thousands of different markets. Data from sources deemed reliable but may contain errors and subject to revision. Last period figures sometimes labeled preliminary. All numbers are approximate.
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